Big changes in Canadian elections

Stephen Harper celebrates Conservative victory

A bit of unexpected turmoil has taken place up north as the Canadian election results are in. The Liberals were savaged, the ruling Conservatives that were a minority government and expected by most analysts to remain that way are now a majority  and the NDP has made major gains that gives it the role of official opposition.   The NDP's gains came at the expense of the separatist Bloc Quebecois which has been all but eliminated as any political challenge to the NDP and Conservatives. The Green party did get a seat in parliament but overall lost support.

With the crushing of the centrist Liberals, the the NDP and the Conservatives are in the ring alone some commentators say. One columnist in the Toronto Star says:

"Canadians turned their backs on more than a century of centrist elite accommodation on Monday and selected a Parliament where the populist right and the populist left will be going head to head for the first time."
Others have referred to it as the  "Americanization of Canadian politics"  comparing the situation to the endless deadlock that exists in the US as two capitalist parties struggle for control of society and its resources.

How far apart on the economic and political issues the NDP and the Conservatives are is something I am not so familiar with.  It would seem most likely to me that the NDP would, like the British Labor Party under Blair, prove to the capitalist class that they can be trusted and carry out pro-business policies. This seems to be borne out as one section of the Canadian bourgeois appears to be supporting the NDP which indicates that there is some sort of a division among them. This is not a bad thing as John Clarke of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty told Facts For Working People last week,

Anti-poverty group OCAP poster

"Two interesting developments to day.  One section of the ruling class is now backing the NDP.  The Toronto Star had an editorial endorsing them and not the Liberals for the first time ever.  They stressed that the NDP is pledged to austerity and eliminating deficits and can manage the economy responsibly.  On the other side, the right wing, Toronto Sun, ran a story on the NDP leader, Jack Layton, being found sixteen years ago in a massage parlour by the cops.  Obviously, a difference of opinions in high places."

Increased division among the capitalist class and class polarization in general is not a bad thing; the rejection of the equilibrium of the Liberals would appear to be confirming that in the electoral sphere at least things might be heating up a bit, or at least reflect some turmoil taking place.  Not living in Canada I am not in touch with the real mood when it comes to the NDP but there is no doubt in my mind that this party will carry out the dictates of capital were it in power. While it campaigned on a platform of higher corporate taxes and an end to subsidies for the  energy sector, along with the Conservatives and the Liberals, it promised it would balance the budget within years; and we all know whose backs that burden will fall on.

The big victory for the Conservatives has liberal and environmentalists alike in a panic who seem to accept without reservation that Canada is up for sale and that capital will be able to do whatever it wants.  This is a common fear among those who do not see the working class as a force that has and will make it's presence felt in the political and economic direction of the country.

Meanwhile, the much loathed Stephen Harper is the driver's seat for a while.